E20: Making Money Without Working Crazy Hours

I used to work crazy long hours as I thought it was the only way to make money.

Not any more!

In this episode I explore a question I am asked ALL of the time:

"How do I make money without working crazy hours?"

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Transcript

Hello & welcome to Dream Business Dream Life, helping ambitious people, like you, to grow a business they love.

 I’m Emma Hine and I’m on a mission to show you that it is possible to grow a business without sacrificing your life.

 Having experienced the rollercoaster of making millions of pounds, but feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and totally unsuccessful, I know first-hand the importance of growing a business on your terms.

 On this podcast I'm going to share with you lots of tips and advice that will enable you to grow a business that gives you the financial freedom to live the life of your dreams while sharing with you some inspirational growth stories from other fabulous business owners.

 Ready to live the dream? Then let’s get stuck in…

Hello & Welcome to today’s episode of Dream Business Dream Life.

One of the questions I get asked all of the time is how an earth do you make money without working all the hours.

 And it is a question I absolutely love because I totally get why people think you have to work super hard to make decent money, I used to think that too.

 I used to work super hard and I made lots of money but it wasn’t fun and there is no way I could have kept going at that pace.

 Now I work sensible hours, doing something I love, and still make decent money; with lots of potential to grow when and if I want to.

 But before we look at ways you can make money without working all the hours I want to ask you to think about how much money you actually want to earn.

 Setting a financial target in your business is something so many people avoid, or they just pull any old figure out of thin air because they think it sounds like a good figure or they see others talking about those big launches and huge sales months so they think they need the same.

Now I am not tabooing any of that, if you want to earn lots of money then great but I just want you to be crystal clear on how much you actually want to earn and why.

 It’s that why that will keep you motivated after all.

 Now what I also want you to think about is what time you want to dedicate to your business both now and longer term; because from day one you need to start thinking about building a business model and a product suite that will make this possible.

 If you want to work within school hours or over 3 days, then you need to be clear on that and you need to do it too. 

 Setting boundaries around your working hours and sticking to them is super important.

 My maximum working hours are 10am until 4pm Monday to Friday and it is only exceptional circumstances that I work beyond those hours. I often work less if I am honest.

 Now of course, it may be that you have to do more at times, especially at the beginning but the sooner you start to work within your dream hours the better.

 Ok so let’s explore some of the ways that you can maximise your income whilst working within your chosen, or enforced, hours.

 But first let’s talk about how you are currently using your time.

 When I do this exercise with clients, we often find that they are not using their time efficiently, they are doing the things they have always done instead of the things that they should be doing and they have no real handle on the profitability of their offers in comparison to the time they take to deliver.

 So the first thing you need to do is get clear on how you use your time.

 Like right down to the granular detail 

I love using my traffic light system here.

 List all the activities then highlight them red, amber or green.

 Red is stuff you do not need to do at all; stuff to stop doing. There will be stuff that you are just doing because you always have, stuff that is adding no value to you or your business.

 Amber is stuff you need to do but it could be done by someone else, or it could be streamlined, automated etc. Of course you cannot just outsource or automate this stuff straight away but you are clear on what you can get rid of as soon as you can.

 Green is stuff only you can do. 

 Include how much time each activity takes and then you can prioritise and see where your attention needs to go.

 Doing this exercise is guaranteed to get some of the stuff off your list. 

 If not right now, then certainly in the future when you have sorted the automation or the VA to do some of those admin or techy tasks that are just not the best use of your time.

 Then you need to start blocking the time in your diary to do the things you need to do.

 Now I’m quite old fashioned, and I love pen and paper so yes I have an electronic diary for my appointments but I also use a paper diary and every day I write myself a set of goals. 

These goals are the things I am going to do that day, it will include content creation, admin, podcast recording, client work, basically everything I need to do.

 I do this a week in advance and then of course add to it as things crop up.

 I don’t block it into specific times as I love the flexibility, but I tell you what crossing things off as I do them and seeing the page at the end of the day with everything crossed through is a real sense of achievement that for me no electronic system can give me.

 Of course some days I don’t cross everything off, that is ok it just stays there until it is done.

 I also have specific days in my calendar for client work, so I always know that I have head down days, with no zoom calls booked in, so that I can get stuck into the things like working on my business, creating content and planning my next project.

 These call free days are great for catching up so I always know I will end a week up to date and on top of the upcoming week.

 So, find your thing; find the system that works for you but make sure you plan to do all of these things that you need to do. Don’t try just fitting them in as that will simply lead to lots of wasted time and often duplication of effort too.

 Ok so now let’s look at how you work, as in the products and services that you offer to your clients.

 First and foremost, get clear on the profitability of each of your offers verses the time they take you to deliver.

One of my clients was able to grow their revenue by over £5000 per month by switching her attention from one of her offers to another and it freed her up 10 – 15 hours per week as well.

 We often keep doing what we have always done because we assume it is the best way or we are afraid to change it because it is paying us some money, but it is time to get radical if you want to grow.

 It is time to really make your products and services work for you as well as your clients if you want to work less hard and earn more money.

 So next up, you need to think about how you can create recurring revenue within your business.

 Recurring revenue can come from things like memberships and subscriptions.

 It can come from royalties from books.

 It can come from selling evergreen courses and downloadables.

 But it can also come from payment plans. 

 So, if you sell a course or a 1-2-1 program and offer a pay monthly option that is some guaranteed income for the next 3, 6 or even 12 months.

 There is a lot to be said for getting your money up front via pay in full as it takes away any risk of failed payments but personally, I love it when people pay monthly as it helps me to maintain a regular baseline income every month.

 And let’s be honest when those big lump sums come in it is very tempting to spend it all in one go. When it is drip fed in monthly that temptation is taken away and you can manage your money and your cash flow so much better.

 So recurring revenue is a great way to boost your income and work less hard. 

Then there is group work.

How can you move from offering all 1-2-1 to offering more group work?

 It does not have to be huge groups if that does not sit comfortably with you or your ideal client but even having 3 or 4 clients in a group rather than being all 1-2-1 is going to free up a lot more of your time and potentially make you more money too.

 If you charge £1000 for 1-2-1 and £300 for the group offer, then with 4 people in your group you have made an extra £200, and you have done it in 1 hour instead of 4.

 There are so many benefits to group work for both you and your clients.

 So where can you add group work into your business?

 The final thing I want to touch on today is your expenses.

 When did you last look at what you are paying out every month? Both personally and in your business,

 How many things are you paying for that you are simply not using?

 How many things are you just renewing without checking if there is a better way to spend the money? Or maybe looking for a more affordable company to move to.

 So, my final advice is to get deep and dirty with your outgoings.

 Unless you do this regularly, I bet there are things you had forgotten you were even paying for.

 I did this exercise back in 2021 for the first time in years and wow I was wasting so much money…like eye watering amounts of money.

 There you go some of my top tips that will help you to make more money without having to work even harder…and maybe just maybe you can even work less hard than you are right now and still make more money.

 Thank you for listening; see you next time…

You have been listening to Dream Business Dream Life with Emma Hine. If you want to know more about how I can help you to build your dream business and your dream life, then visit my website emmehine.co.uk. Until next time remember you really can have it all!